TOY FAIR: Big three opt for shell stands

Whilst the majority of the industry came out of the recent discussions on Toy Fair opting against the idea of a shell-scheme only show, the three have decided they needed a cost effective way to showcase their ranges.

They will be trialling a new super-shell scheme toy fair stand construction at the 2009 Excel Toy Fair with the aim of "creating a more customer-friendly visiting experience".

Nick Austin, CEO of Vivid said: "We definitely needed to find a more cost-effective and visitor-friendly way of making Excel work . Building temporary palaces at trade fairs that end up in a skip after 4 days is just money badly spent.”

Jonathan Evans, MD of Hasbro added: "We are excited by the changes we are making in 2009 with some of our BTHA colleagues and hope that it leads to even greater change in 2010."

Jon Diver, Joint-MD of Character Options also added: "We at Character have been impressed with what is possible to achieve using the new super-shell scheme. Vivid, Hasbro and Character’s use of the new Shell Scheme, at the 2009 Toy Fair, will hopefully prove to other exhibitors, the potential of the Shell scheme to effectively present our product ranges in a customer friendly and cost efficient way, without losing the razzmatazz of previous Toy Fairs."

The Copyrights Group is one of the licensing arms within The Vivendi Group. Acquired by Vivendi in 2016 Copyrights manages the licensing for a portfolio of properties to include Paddington Bear. Some of the other companies within the Vivendi Group include Universal Music Group, and their licensing arm Bravado, Gameloft and Studiocanal to name a few.